School proposes off-campus lunch option

Thursday

Kings Mountain High School upperclassmen may get to eat lunch off campus.

Kings Mountain High School upperclassmen may get to eat lunch off campus.

KMHS principal Ronny Funderburke presented a SMART lunch program proposal to the Cleveland County school board this week.

SMART lunch, which stands for Students Maximizing Achievement Relationships Time, is a 55-minute lunch period where students can receive tutoring, meet with school clubs or take make-up tests. Teachers would also have the opportunity to conduct meetings and complete work.

KMHS hopes to start the program in the fall semester of this year.

Freshmen and sophomores would be required to take part in SMART lunch, and juniors and seniors would be allowed to go off campus for lunch after earning a pass.

“Many students can’t stay after school to receive extra help,” Funderburke said. “They may work or play sports. This allows them to get remedial help during the day.”

With SMART lunch, the whole school has lunch at the same time. Students would eat for 25 minutes and then go to individual meetings or tutoring sessions.

Where did the idea originate?

KMHS teachers and administration visited Panther Creek High School in Wake County, which uses SMART lunch with 2,500 students. KMHS has 1,300 students.

“The Panther High principal told us for the first two weeks of school, it will be 100 percent chaos until students get the hang of it,” Funderburke said. “Once it settles down, it helps teach students time management and builds student-teacher relationships.

Lunch at KMHS is 25 minutes now. To make up the 55-minute block for SMART lunch, the school would have to find 39 minutes during the day to include in the lunch period.

“We have talked about taking five minutes off of each class period and one minute off of each class change,” Funderburke said. “We would also start school five minutes earlier at 7:55 a.m. and let out five minutes later at 3:15 p.m.”

How did school leaders react?

Most county school board members said they like the idea of SMART lunch, but not of students leaving campus for lunch.

“I think it’s a very exciting idea,” said board member Shearra Miller. “But I’m unsure how you will stop all students from leaving campus, or if they will have enough time to get food without having to rush back.”

Board member Jerry Hoyle asked if the program could be implemented without students leaving for lunch.

“One reason students do leave school is to get some of the students out during the eating time,” Funderburke said. “That will make it less crowded.”

Some county schools, such as Burns High School, could not leave for lunch if they implemented SMART lunch because there aren’t restaurants nearby, school board members said. The board said a different program could be created for them.